Ayn Rand - Opinions?

by cappytan 80 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Spectre

  Thanks for posting the videos. I'll watch those later.

  I have Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead and maybe another. From what I've heard I know I'm not going to agree with her position but wanted to read them to get my own viewpoint. After I got through the first page of AS and glanced at the rest of the 1000+ pages of small print, I quickly decided I didn't want to spend my time on them. I've got tons of other stuff to read and I don't find myself in too many arguments over her philosophy.
• 

  Viviane

  It's not a requirement to agree with everything an author writes to nonetheless find some value or merit in their work.

  I never said it was.

  However, I currently use Anthem as part of my curriculum with my high school students. I find it helpful for them to understand the central issue of collectivism vs. individualism.

  My son just read Anthem in high school last semester so I had the occasion to read it again. I found it helpful, but primary to take the opportunity to explain that Anthem is a poorly written and thought our piece that creates a false dichotomy, an us vs. them mentality, a collective vs. individual mentality that, in reality, doesn't exist.

  I find it useful as an example to illustrate, how, in the real world, that type of thinking is childish and inadequate and doesn't actually exist except as a talking point to rally the uneducated into thinking it's us vs. them, no matter your side of the issue.

  So yes, as an example of why we can't have nice things, it's stunningly perfect.

  Other books in this vein I would recommend are:

  • Nineteen Eighty-Four

  • Animal Farm

  • Fahrenheit 451

  • The Giver

  I've not read The Giver, but, the other three in the list are the same only in that there is a dystopian world. Nineteen Eighty Four doesn't have a protagonist who is special and smarter than everyone else and defeats the world through just his specialness rebelling and living in the woods. Animal Farm is about becoming that which you reject, the irony of becoming the very object of your hate. Fahrenheit 451 is the closest in theme in that the government is enforcing equality, but mostly it's a tale about the dangers of government censorship as per Ray Bradbury himself (I've read many of his books).

  In terms of what the book is actually about, the three I mentioned aren't thematically close.
• 

  kaik

  I have read her book Atlas Shrugged and I seen some of the historical vintages movies. I don't agree with many of her views. On top of it she was racist and demanded internment camps for the blacks in the 1950's/1960's. In her mind it was unacceptable that blacks would demonstrate against government and demand any other rights. She later was confronted with that views and apologized, but it was too little too late. Additionally, her cult followers often talks about her hatred toward communism as a personal experience, but she left Russia right after the Revolution and have little experience with Stalinism, if any. I am not big fan of Objectivism as it is extreme as much as was Anarrchist movement in her era. Rand is a product of the early 20th century and it is better to keep it that way. World has changed since 1930-1950's to be followed by Rand philosophy.
  
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  finally awake

  It would have been interesting if, instead of funding her surgery and providing benefits, the government had turned her away with the comment that she herself was opposed to taking such benefits.....
• 

  Oubliette

  Viviane: the other three in the list are the same only in that there is a dystopian world.

  Thank you for understanding what I said.

  For what it's worth, I have not missed your argumentativeness.
  
• 

  Socrateswannabe

  I'm in favor of almost any philosophy that debunks religion, but Rand took Rationalism too far--to becoming an extremist cause that can't be justified or sustained in any society.
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  Viviane

  Thank you for understanding what I said.
  For what it's worth, I have not missed your argumentativeness.

  Of course I have an argument. This is a thread asking for opinion on a topic on a discussion forum. I am not sure why you would expect me to not have an argument. If you have a differing opinion, please present it. Focusing on style rather than substance doesn't move the debate anywhere. No one has been insulted, no strawman arguments made.

  You seem to confuse "directness not wrapped in sugary words and backed with facts" with "argumentative".
• 

  FayeDunaway

  I find it interesting that you say a collective vs. individual mentality in reality doesn't exist...when each of us here has experienced this reality directly in our own lives.

  And most of us have, as well, fled to the 'woods' and rebuilt our lives on our own.
• 

  FayeDunaway

  I would add to oubliette's list

  brave new world
• 

  Oubliette

  Faye, thanks for adding Aldous Huxley's seminal work to the list!